Broody Hens Again: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Broodiness But Were Afraid To Ask

I got some questions about broody hens after yesterday’s
post, so here’s more, plus an update on my broody hen situation.

To recap what I said yesterday in a couple of sentences:
Chickens are really bad moms. The maternal instinct has pretty much been bred
out of most breeds of chickens.

Typically the egg laying cycle goes something like this: (1)
Just prior to laying an egg the hen’s pituitary pumps tons of a hormone called
prolactin into her bloodstream and she clucks, “I’m gonna lay this egg, and
then by golly, I’m gonna sit on it for 21 days until it hatches – I’m gonna
have me a baby chick!” (2) Hen then lays previously mentioned egg. (3) Hen’s
prolactin levels return to normal. (4) Hen says, “Wait….what was I thinking?”
hops out of the nest & goes about her business of pecking and scratching.
(5) Somebody collects the egg and we all get omelets.

It is actually a good thing hens are bad moms – if they
started pining about all those lost eggs, got depressed and stopped laying
eggs, we would all suffer. Also, a hen sitting on eggs is not necessary for the
propagation of chickens. Some hobbyists still get baby chicks this way but the
poultry industry relies on incubators almost completely.

Occasionally, though, after a hen lays an egg, her pituitary
continues pumping prolactin and she gets very serious about sitting on the nest
for the requisite 21 days and raising babies. That phenomenon is known to
poultry people as broodiness. The term broodiness was coined to describe
chicken behavior and only later was borrowed to describe people. But you can
imagine how a broody hen acts. She sits alone in a dark place, growls threateningly
at any chicken or person who comes near her, stops laying more eggs, and takes
maybe a 5 minute break once a day to eat, drink, and poop. Otherwise, she just
sits there 24/7.

Sadly, in most domestic poultry situations, because there is
no rooster, a broody hen is sitting on sterile eggs that will never hatch.
Also, more than likely her eggs are collected as she lays them, so she’s
actually sitting on an empty nest and in deep denial.

This is exactly the situation that has been going on with my
two little Silkie hens, Emily and Courtney. Courtney has entrenched
herself in a nest box with her head facing a back corner and looks just like a
giant cotton ball from outside the nest box. Emily scratched out a depression
in the straw on the floor in a back corner of the coop. Neither of them are
sitting on any eggs, but there they sit. The perfect solution when a hen goes
broody would be to give her some fertile eggs, or allow her to hatch her own,
but of course then you have baby chicks and that is usually not a practical
outcome. A less perfect solution is to break the hen’s broodiness.

If you surf the net, it isn’t hard to find all sorts of
suggested methods for breaking broodiness. Some of them, such as dunking the
hen in ice-cold water, seem extreme. I use a method that seems less cruel. I
put my hens in jail. I put them in a wire crate, so they can’t go back to their
nests. There’s nothing to make a nest out of in the crate, so they are unable
to nest. In theory, after a few days in this situation, a hen’s raging hormones
will abate and at that point she can go back in the coop with the other
chickens. Normally, after some initial complaining, hens don’t seem to be too
distressed to be in the crate. Eventually, they start eating again, and
drinking, and roosting at night on a roost within the crate.

After a few days, they get out of jail, and are totally
reformed chickens, their broodiness gone and forgotten. In a couple of
weeks they start laying eggs again.

This time, though – for the first time ever, I wanted to
maintain the broodiness so these little hens could be moms for the baby chicks
I’m bringing home later this month. To that end, I first decided to improve
Emily’s situation. I created what I have dubbed a "luxury nest box"
by turning a plastic waste basket on its side and putting a cushy excelsior pad
in the bottom. Then I added a handful of golf balls – just like having real
eggs to sit on! I removed Emily from the little nest she had made in the straw
and put the luxury nest box down on top of her nest. Emily went to find some
food and water – something she does only a couple times a day when she’s broody
– and I went about my business. When I checked in with her later in the day,
she was out in the main part of the coop clucking and scratching with the other
hens. She had completely lost her broodiness. I was astounded. Considering the
difficulty I’ve had in the past breaking Emily’s broodiness, I was amazed that
I had accomplished it simply by covering her old nest with the luxury box.

One failure – on to the next hen. I took the same luxury nest
box that had not provided any inspiration to Emily and put it in a small
separate coop along with food and water, and then removed a protesting Courtney
from her nest box and placed her in this coop. When I checked back later,
Courtney had buried herself in the luxury box so far that all I could see was
her fluffy white butt. And she was sitting on the pile of golf balls with great
contentment. Yes! Success! Hopefully she’ll continue her vigil until the chicks
show up!

All you can see is Courtney's fluffy backside as she tries with great determination to hatch golf balls .

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Mission Statement

Hi! I’m Randy and this is my chicken blog. I write it, edit it, take the pictures, feed the chickens, hug the chickens, etc. I blog because a few years ago, I got these chickens…I had no idea when I got my first chickens that I would get attached to them and become this sentimental, crazy old chicken guy. I had no idea that each chicken would have its own personality, that chickens had such a huge range of vocalizations that they literally “talk” to each other, that they have this amazing, intricate social structure, or that there would be so much drama in the coop—love, conflict, friendship, sex, motherhood, anxiety—a virtual soap opera playing out before my eyes every day.

So I write these little vignettes about my birds that are mostly whimsical but also mostly true. In the process of telling my stories I also pass along a variety of views and opinions which are completely my own. Please also bear in mind that the information I share regarding my care of my chickens has come from my experience caring for my flock. I’m not a veterinarian and I have had no formal education in any kind of chickenology.

There are a few facts that I hope to get across to anybody who regularly reads my blog:

1.My chickens are really cool.

2.All chickens are really cool.

3.The majority of chickens being raised for meat or egg production, in spite of their inherent coolness, are treated cruelly. You can help make changes by your purchasing habits. Educate yourself! Read labels! Check company websites!